John Tsang is a systems immunologist, computational biologist, and engineer. Tsang is a Professor of Immunobiology and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University and the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Systems and Engineering Immunology (CSEI).
Tsang’s group investigates why immune system statuses and responses to perturbations (e.g., to SARS-CoV-2 infections) are highly variable across individuals in the human population. Their approach involves the development and application of computational, quantitative modeling, and experimental methods, including high-dimensional, longitudinal immune monitoring of human cohorts throughout the lifespan and around the globe, machine learning, dynamical modeling, and ex vivo experiments and animal models. Tsang is also interested in developing a predictive immune cell engineering toolkit to program immune cells as sensors of tissue statuses, which will enable longitudinal immune and health monitoring of the whole body. Towards achieving this vision, he and his colleagues are working on quantitatively dissecting the mechanisms and design principles of tissue-blood communications and immune cell trafficking, including cell-cell interaction and signal integration by immune cells in tissues.
Tsang earned his Ph.D. in biophysics and systems biology from Harvard University and trained in computer engineering (BASc) and computer science (MMath) at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Tsang has won multiple awards for his research, including several NIH/NIAID Merit Awards recognizing his scientific leadership in systems immunology, COVID-19, and human immunology research. His work on mapping human immune variations and predicting vaccination responses was selected as a Top NIAID Research Advance of 2014. Tsang has served as an advisor on systems immunology and computational biology for numerous programs and organizations, including the Allen Institute, World Allergy Organization, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Gates Foundation, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
